Get moving with the help of technology!

There are technology gadgets to help with almost every aspect of life today, including fitness. So now we can get moving with the help of technology. We’ve taken a look at three popular gadgets, and highlight each of them below, based on information provided on the product websites.

The Nike+ SE Fuelband

This neat fitness bracelet tracks your movement and displays your progress in real time for all kinds of activities. It motivates you by awarding badges for meeting or exceeding your goals. Nike describes the product as ‘Motivation on your wrist’.

Motion-sensing technology captures your movements and converts them to NikeFuel. The NikeFuel you earn is tracked against a Daily Goal you’ve set for yourself. You can view your progress toward your Daily Goal on the FuelBand SE itself and in the free Nike+ FuelBand App.

Overall, Fuelband is an easy to use fitness tracker, with a simple display that shows the time, steps taken, calories burnt, and the NikeFuel points earned. Colours on the display change from the lowest (red) through yellow (getting there) to green (the top).

The Fitbit Zip™ and Fitbit Force™

Fitbit claims that these two clever gadgets make it easy to track activity, sync stats, see trends and reach goals.

The simplest, and most affordable of the two products, is the Fitbit Zip™. This basic wireless tracker wristband tracks your steps, distance, and calories burned, and continuously syncs these stats to your computer and select smartphones. It celebrates progress made each day and encourages you to set goals, challenge friends and challenge yourself – one step at a time.

For about twice the price, you can step up to the Fitbit Force™, which is described as a powerful Force for everyday fitness. The sleek wristband provides real-time stats right on your wrist, tracking steps taken, distance travelled, calories burned, steps climbed and active minutes throughout the day. During the night, it tracks your sleep. These are just two of a range of Fitbit fitness products. Check them all on the Fitbit website.

The Jawbone UP app

The Jawbone website describes the UP app as being ‘the app that’s all about you’, encouraging you to ‘sleep, move and eat better with the new Jawbone UP 3.0 app’.

A wireless bracelet or wristband like the previous products described, the UP claims to tie it all together, tracking your unique patterns and looking for hidden connections and patterns between your day and nighttime activities. It then suggests daily goals, based on these unique patterns. You can add “teammates” using a smartphone app. This particular app doesn’t sync with computers.

Find out more about the Jawbone UP on the Jawbone website.

Before we got wireless…

…pedometers filled the gap. And these small, relatively inexpensive devices can still be a valuable aid to track the number of  steps walked each day. The results of a study by the American Medical Association suggests pedometers may be a great solution, both to motivate people to get physically active and to achieve genuine health benefits.

You can also find valuable tracking tools, including your personal physical activity tracker in the self-management tools section.